---
title: “Well, I should like to be a _little_ larger, sir, if you wouldn’t m… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “Well, I should like to be a _little_ larger, sir, if you wouldn’t mind,” said Alice: “three inches is such a wretched height to be.” Who acts: Alice, you, three inches. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter V. Advice from a Caterpillar, with its dependency tree 
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter V. Advice from a Caterpillar, sentence 55

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Well, I should like to be a \_little\_ larger, sir, if you wouldn’t mind,” said Alice: “three inches is such a wretched height to be.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Alice, you, three inches · **What happens:** like, be, not mind, say · **To what, where:** \_ little larger sir, wretched height · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter V. Advice from a Caterpillar. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Alice, you, three inches), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg11:6:55
# text = “Well, I should like to be a _little_ larger, sir, if you wouldn’t mind,” said Alice: “three inches is such a wretched height to be.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Well	well	INTJ	UH	_	6	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	like	like	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	ccomp	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
8	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	cop	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
10	_	_	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	15	punct	_	_
13	larger	large	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	15	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
15	sir	sir	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	mind	mind	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
24	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
25	Alice	Alice	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	34	punct	_	_
27	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	29	nummod	_	_
29	inches	inch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	nsubj	_	_
30	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	34	cop	_	_
31	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	34	det:predet	_	_
32	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	wretched	wretched	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	height	height	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	ccomp	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	34	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	34	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	34	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **like** *in a quote* | should | Alice |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot |
| 2 | **is a** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | Alice *not said here* | a \_ little larger sir |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **mind** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | would | you |  |  |  |  |  | vn care-88.1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Alice |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | three inches | such wretched height |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Project Gutenberg book 11 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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